Eating Clean Means Consuming Calories!

We are going to assume that since you are here you want a healthy, lean body.  In order to achieve that you must EAT!  Knowing that we eat 5-6 times per day you have probably realized that we eat a lot of food! For some reason our society thinks that you need to restrict calories.  You NEED to eat.  You NEED calories.  Don't obsess over the number of calories - pay attention to the quality of the food!  It's true...you might lose weight initially by restricting your calories but you will wreak havoc on your metabolism and that is a long road to recovery!

It is okay that you don't know everything about nutrition (neither do we!) - unfortunately it is not a widely taught subject.  We mentioned in our previous post "Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?", that we do not count calories or macros on a normal basis (only when preparing for a special event).  There are a few reasons for this and they are that counting everything can become very time consuming and obsessive plus we tend to eat the same things so there really isn't a need to count the same foods each day!

What is a calorie?

CALORIE (according to Merriam-Webster)

cal·o·rie (noun) : a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body

Most clean diets consist of a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. If you eat the correct proportions of each you will be on your way to a healthy lifestyle and you will probably notice you have a ton of energy (and I bet your cravings will go away!).

The chart below shows you how many calories are in a gram of each "source".

If you are new to the clean eating lifestyle, check out our "Start Here" page and read our "Getting Started with Clean Eating" post as it will give you more information on the overall lifestyle.  We also have eBooks on Getting Started with Clean Eating and Food Prep to get you started or to continue your journey.  If you are looking for a workout plan to get you headed in the right direction you can get started with our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation and then once you are ready move onto the She Sweats Extreme 4-Week Shred.

- The Gang

Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?

You've decided that you want to start eating clean and living a fit and healthy lifestyle but now what...How do you do that?  What do you cook?  How much do you cook?  Where do you shop?  What workouts do you do?  We've answered most of these in previous posts but want to address the question of "How much do I eat?" in this post.

Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?

We don't count calories or obsess over macros. Having a healthy relationship with food is very important and having to count every "point", calorie, or macro that goes into your body can be very stressful mentally. We understand that for certain events, such as competitions or photo shoots, it may become necessary to monitor your intake, but for day-to-day life you shouldn't have to.

Eating healthy meals and watching your portions is where you should start.  Basically, we eat 5-6 meals per day (every 2-3 hours) with a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and a lot of vegetables.

Since you will most likely be prepping your food in advance when eating clean you'll need a starting point for how much food to make!  We wanted to give you some guidelines to get started. Please keep in mind that changing your lifestyle is a marathon and not a sprint and all of us have been eating clean and lifting weights for years so we know our bodies. There is a lot of trial and error involved in finding out what works for you but below are some general daily recommendations:

• Protein – 1.0 gram {for weight-loss}-1.5 grams {for maintenance} per pound of body weight
• Carbohydrates – around 1.0 gram per pound of body weight
• Sugar – under 30 grams per day (keep your sugar derived mostly from fruit)
• Fat – around 0.5 gram per pound of body weight

Remember, do not obsess over the numbers but use this as a starting point.  Once you get used to this lifestyle you will be able to eyeball approximate portions and it will be second nature to you.  We do encourage journaling your food but that is not the same as counting everything you eat.  Journaling your food would mean writing down everything that you eat - this helps when you are trying to pin point something that might be giving you problems such as gluten or other allergies.  It also helps to see where you might be over or under eating.

If you are new to the clean eating lifestyle, check out our "Start Here" page and read our "Getting Started with Clean Eating" post as it will give you more information on the overall lifestyle.  We also have eBooks on Getting Started with Clean Eating and Food Prep to get you started or to continue your journey.  If you are looking for a workout plan to get you headed in the right direction you can get started with our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation and then once you are ready move onto the She Sweats Extreme 4-Week Shred.

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Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park
Our Travel Dates: September 12 – September 13 (2013)
Grand Teton Totals: 18.9 miles & elevation gain of 4,900 ft

This trip to Grand Teton National Park was part of our trip to Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park in September. Over 11 days of hiking we hiked over 140 miles with an elevation gain of over 25,000 feet. This was a trip of a lifetime and well worth the 2 lost toenails.

RELATED: Read about days 1-5 in Glacier National Park & Read about days 6-11 in Yellowstone National Park

Day 11 – Cascade Canyon to Paintbrush Canyon Loop (18.9 miles, 4,900′)

Unfortunately, we were only able to spend one day hiking in Grand Teton National Park but we made the most of it and did Cascade Canyon to Paintbrush Canyon Loop. Yes, all 18.9 miles of it…in one day! It was absolutely breathtaking! It was a pretty gradual climb at first but then became very steep to get to the top. Everyone we passed couldn’t believe we were doing the whole thing in one day, let alone at the end of our trip!

We saw an Osprey and an Osprey nest at the very start of the hike. We were also able to see more glaciers and I even slid on some ice/snow!

After leaving Grand Teton National Park we stopped by Mormon Row.

We stayed one night in Jackson Hole, WY and fell in love! We were so disappointed we could only stay one day. We left Thursday morning to make the trek back to UT. We stopped and stayed in Logan, UT so we wouldn’t have quite as far to drive on Friday morning. The trip from Jackson Hole, WY to Logan, UT was unreal! I can’t get over how much beauty there is in these states! I’m truly in love and can’t wait to move there!

– Whitney